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Anthony Martial France flag

2016-17 Performances


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5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
42
Goals
8
Assists
8
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3
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Martial's a hell of a prospect but claiming he's the 3rd best dribbler in the World is well..... he's not even a Top 5 French dribbler.
 
Martial's a hell of a prospect but claiming he's the 3rd best dribbler in the World is well..... he's not even a Top 5 French dribbler.

Yeah some weird overrating going on here.

IMO he is the second best French talent at the moment behind Dembele, not seen enough of Mbappe to include him.

One hell of an effective dribbler though, his moves are seldom flashy or unnecessary but always takes him past a player. IMO dribblers like him is quick to get underrated and go unnoticed due to them not pulling of fancy shit and stepovers. Bursts and change of direction \ pace is top class with Martial.
 
Martial's a hell of a prospect but claiming he's the 3rd best dribbler in the World is well..... he's not even a Top 5 French dribbler.
He's not top 3 in the world dribblers for sure, but who are the 5 French dribblers better than him? I can think of Dembele, Fekir and Griezmann but who else?
 
His close control (although he's brilliant with that little kick from one foot to the other to make space) and start-and-stop acceleration bursts aren't exactly elite, but his pace and control over long strides is really good. I think it's safe to say he's a good dribbler without needing to try and prove it being his greatest trait, or anything.
 
He's not top 3 in the world dribblers for sure, but who are the 5 French dribblers better than him? I can think of Dembele, Fekir and Griezmann but who else?

Never in a million years is Griezmann a better dribbler than Martial.
 
Martial's a hell of a prospect but claiming he's the 3rd best dribbler in the World is well..... he's not even a Top 5 French dribbler.
You know I've realised you have this habit of throwing these random bold claims without backing them or giving any examples to enforce your argument.

You just say something then follow suit with a laughing emoji, meanwhile you don't provide proof.

Claims such as Kante walking in any team in the world or him being the most dominant midfielder ever in the Prem are thingst I associate with you.

You just throw these ridiculous claim then skip town.

For now how about you name those 5 French young players better dribbler than Martial for a start then we'll take it from there.
 
He's not top 3 in the world dribblers for sure, but who are the 5 French dribblers better than him? I can think of Dembele, Fekir and Griezmann but who else?
How the hell is Griezmann a better dribbler than Martial? Are you just assuming so because he's currently the better player?
 
Thing with Martial is, I still dont think he's playing as well as he can. I expect him to go up a few levels if given the games. He's looking very impressive.
 
How the hell is Griezmann a better dribbler than Martial? Are you just assuming so because he's currently the better player?
I don't think he is, I am saying he probably thinks that Griezmann is. Truth is I don't know, which is why I am asking.
 
Really? how curious. Well there is an easy way to determine who's the best dribbler as it is a metric that is recorded. Lets see..............based on last year (Martial's most effective), here are the dribbling stats.

Martial completed 84 dribbles with a success rate of 46.15% not bad

Hazard who was shit last year, completed 89 dribbles at 61.81% success rate.

Messi completed 117 dribbles at 61.58 success rate

Neymar completed 143 at 57.89% success rate.

Sanchez completed 101 dribbles at 61.21 % success

Memphis complete 28 dribbles at 47.46%

2015 Robben completed 94 dribbles at 67.63%

You get my drift??? Martial is not even in the top 20, if I scoured all the leagues pal

EDIT : I would say Ben Arfa is also a better dribbler
You can't use stats to determine a players dribbling ability. They don't take into account so many things; speed, position of player and defenders, area of the pitch, direction of the dribble... Martial always dribbles very fast and directly at defenders, with the ball stuck to his feet regardless of how little space he has to work with. Sanchez for example will only really dribble when afforded a lot of space and usually away from defenders so of course he is gonna have a higher completion rate.

The wannabe statmen may disagree but who is better at running at 4 defenders and coming out with the ball? i can only think of Messi and maybe Hazard. There's a reason so many professionals who have actually played the game think he can become one of the greatest in the world.
 
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You can't use a metric to compare dribbling ability. :lol:

People will try to prove anything with stats
 
You can't use a metric to compare dribbling ability. :lol:

People will try to prove anything with stats
Leicester moneyballing the league has turned everone into boring stat merchants :wenger:
 
You can't use stats to determine a players dribbling ability. They don't take into account so many things; speed, position of player and defenders, area of the pitch, direction of the dribble... Martial always dribbles very fast and directly at defenders, with the ball stuck to his feet regardless of how little space he has to work with. Sanchez for example will only really dribble when afforded a lot of space and usually away from defenders so of course he is gonna have a higher completion rate.

The wannabe statmen may disagree but who is better at running at 4 defenders and coming out with the ball? i can only think of Messi and maybe Hazard. There's a reason so many professionals who have actually played the game think he can become one of the greatest in the world.
There is also a reason so few players try to run at four defenders. It's because it is idiotic.
 
There is also a reason so few players try to run at four defenders. It's because it is idiotic.
It's idiotic for most players because they can't pull it off. Martial has created chances and scored every game since being brought back into the side doing exactly that and it's beautiful to watch
 
He's not top 3 in the world dribblers for sure, but who are the 5 French dribblers better than him? I can think of Dembele, Fekir and Griezmann but who else?
Ffs lad. Martial is miles better than both Fekir & especially Griezmann in terms of dribbling ability. Not even close.

The five are Dembele, Ribery, Ben Arfa, Payet & your own Pogba.
 
You know I've realised you have this habit of throwing these random bold claims without backing them or giving any examples to enforce your argument.

You just say something then follow suit with a laughing emoji, meanwhile you don't provide proof.

Claims such as Kante walking in any team in the world or him being the most dominant midfielder ever in the Prem are thingst I associate with you.

You just throw these ridiculous claim then skip town.

For now how about you name those 5 French young players better dribbler than Martial for a start then we'll take it from there.
I don't even rate Kante as highly as United fans do. You clearly have the wrong person.

Also, I already named my 5.
 
Ffs lad. Martial is miles better than both Fekir & especially Griezmann in terms of dribbling ability. Not even close.

The five are Dembele, Ribery, Ben Arfa, Payet & your own Pogba.
Pogba and Payet I disagree with. Pogba might be close, but not as Martial is because he doesn't keep the ball so close to his feet at higher speeds. Same with Payet. Ribery is retired from international football if I am not mistake so he's kind of irrelevant.
 
Pogba and Payet I disagree with. Pogba might be close, but not as Martial is because he doesn't keep the ball so close to his feet at higher speeds. Same with Payet. Ribery is retired from international football if I am not mistake so he's kind of irrelevant.


Payet is arguably even the best of those 5. I saw him regularly pull off stuff for West Ham & France not many players are capable of. Watch just the first 3-5 minutes of that video & I'm sure you'd probably change your mind.

Also, I rate Pogba ahead of Martial in terms of dribbling because he mostly takes players on in the middle of the park where bodies are packed & space is congested. Only other player in the World that does that is Verratti. He's also one of the World's best players in terms of 1v1's. He regularly skins his markers whenever he's isolated on the flanks.

It is debatable though, Martial's close control & speed or Pogba's flair & power.
 
Ffs lad. Martial is miles better than both Fekir & especially Griezmann in terms of dribbling ability. Not even close.

The five are Dembele, Ribery, Ben Arfa, Payet & your own Pogba.
Only Ben Arfa in that list is a better dribbler than Martial.
 
Rashford jose needs to understand he is best off the bench, a plan B to zlatan, and no way should lingard ever start ahead of mrtial. Its pretty obvious martial, mkhi and pogba are the power houses to support zlatan, or mata used has a no10 to support zlatan with mkhi and martial rampaging from the wings, we can see jose seeing the importance martial brings, and already the pieces are moving into place as jose is preparing zlatan's long term replacement. But? I hope now carrick is unfit its mata martial and mkhi supporting zlatan on the weekend
I would hope that at least 2 of those lads are rested at the weekend?
 
I don't even rate Kante as highly as United fans do. You clearly have the wrong person.

Also, I already named my 5.
From the name you mentioned only Ben is arguable while the rest aren't better dribbler than Martial. Pogba for example is aestically better than Martial in his dribbles but he's no way a better dribbler than Martial. Payer isn't even close, Rubery is a retired player(the fact that you had to dig him show how hard you're finding to come up with those players better than Martial at dribbling).

That Dembele kid is also a good shout but isnot really a better dribbler than Martial.

Martial has that dribbling talent where very few like Hazard, Messi, Robben can carry the ball at full speed and glide past through opponents. Miki also has this quality but Martial is able to dribble at a faster pace than him which make him even better.

It's very hard to carry the ball at full throttle, skim through players with the ball close to your feat without losing control. Martial has that quality which very few have.

And yes you overrate Kante. You think saying Kante is the most dominant Mf in the PL isn't overrating him? Or saying that he'd walk into any team in the world bar maybe one isn't? (Though I don't know if this one was said by you or someone else)
 
Martial is a much better dribbler than Pogba. It's not even a contest.
 
Im sure Zaha stats would be great, but stats are meaningless without context.
 
From the name you mentioned only Ben is arguable while the rest aren't better dribbler than Martial. Pogba for example is aestically better than Martial in his dribbles but he's no way a better dribbler than Martial. Payer isn't even close, Rubery is a retired player(the fact that you had to dig him show how hard you're finding to come up with those players better than Martial at dribbling).

That Dembele kid is also a good shout but isnot really a better dribbler than Martial.

Martial has that dribbling talent where very few like Hazard, Messi, Robben can carry the ball at full speed and glide past through opponents. Miki also has this quality but Martial is able to dribble at a faster pace than him which make him even better.

It's very hard to carry the ball at full throttle, skim through players with the ball close to your feat without losing control. Martial has that quality which very few have.

And yes you overrate Kante. You think saying Kante is the most dominant Mf in the PL isn't overrating him? Or saying that he'd walk into any team in the world bar maybe one isn't? (Though I don't know if this one was said by you or someone else)

Someone else. In fact iirc Blue Celery claimed to think Herrera has been the best midfielder in the prem this season, whilst claiming Kante is decent but overrated.
 
Dele Alli is 20. say what you want but he is bloody effective in the premier league and consistent. Dybala is the same age as Kane and is in his 6th season :eek:. Martial is in the youth category as he only turned 21 recently so I would put him in there. Could Mbappe handle the intensity of BPL as well as Martial can?

Is Alli that effective? This year he has 13 goals and 3 assists in 41 appearances, I think exclusively playing up front. So roughly a goal or assist every 2.5 games.

Martial, playing almost exclusively on the wing has 8 goals and 4 assists in 31 appearances. So roughly a goal or assist every 2.5 games. And Martial has had a poor season, I think there's very little disagreement over that.

Personally I think Alli is a very average forward. I'd rather have Andy Carroll at the moment. Should be being groomed as a midfielder.
 
You can't use stats to determine a players dribbling ability. They don't take into account so many things; speed, position of player and defenders, area of the pitch, direction of the dribble... Martial always dribbles very fast and directly at defenders, with the ball stuck to his feet regardless of how little space he has to work with. Sanchez for example will only really dribble when afforded a lot of space and usually away from defenders so of course he is gonna have a higher completion rate.

The wannabe statmen may disagree but who is better at running at 4 defenders and coming out with the ball? i can only think of Messi and maybe Hazard. There's a reason so many professionals who have actually played the game think he can become one of the greatest in the world.
The funny thing is what you said of Sanchez is actually true of Martial and vice versa. Martial likes the ball played to feet and wants a run on his defenders. To me that does not explain why Sanchez has a higher completion rate. P.S. over the course of the season, you will have enough spread to draw some sort of conclusion. It is statistically unlikely that one dribbler is going to have an advantage over the other, due to the chaotic nature of a football match, and unpredictability. it would be stupid to suggest that Martials 160 dribbling attempts were all "really tough" dribbles and Sanchez took the easy route in his 140 or so. Football is too unpredictable so you aren't afforded that luxury.

In terms of taking on 4 defenders, that isn't a Martial trade mark so I don't know why you even put him top 3. Alexis actually does this a lot! Players like Robben can as he has that Giggs magic.

Below I just want you to peek at Alexis dribbling, just to see how absurd it is to suggest he only dribbles when he has lots of space and he runs away from defenders. You will see, like any dribbler, he has to dribbles in all situations, including running at the heart of teams with multiple opposition to get by. If anyone attempts the more safer dribbles, it's Martial as he tends to stick to one side, the left side. Alexis will run at the centre of the opposition or wherever.


 
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Is Alli that effective? This year he has 13 goals and 3 assists in 41 appearances, I think exclusively playing up front. So roughly a goal or assist every 2.5 games.

Martial, playing almost exclusively on the wing has 8 goals and 4 assists in 31 appearances. So roughly a goal or assist every 2.5 games. And Martial has had a poor season, I think there's very little disagreement over that.

Personally I think Alli is a very average forward. I'd rather have Andy Carroll at the moment. Should be being groomed as a midfielder.

I agree. I think he is way overhyped. Granted he is only 20, but most of the hype comes from people and media who think of him as a brilliant goalscoring midfielder like Lampard and Gerrard. In truth, he played most games as a roaming second forward with a decent scoring record. Put him in midfield and he struggles against top quality opposition. All being said, i like him as a talent but players like him are difficult to fit in cos they are neither a 10 nor a 9, unless he becomes a Muller.
 
The funny thing is what you said of Sanchez is actually true of Martial and vice versa. Martial likes the ball played to feet and wants a run on his defenders. To me that does not explain why Sanchez has a higher completion rate. P.S. over the course of the season, you will have enough spread to draw some sort of conclusion. It is statistically unlikely that one dribbler is going to have an advantage over the other, due to the chaotic nature of a football match, and unpredictability. it would be stupid to suggest that Martials 160 dribbling attempts were all "really tough" dribbles and Sanchez took the easy route in his 140 or so. Football is too unpredictable so you aren't afforded that luxury.

In terms of taking on 4 defenders, that isn't a Martial trade mark so I don't know why you even put him top 3. Alexis actually does this a lot! Players like Robben can as he has that Giggs magic.

Below I just want you to peak at Alexis dribbling, just to see how absurd it is to suggest he only dribbles when he has lots of space and he runs away from defenders. You will see, like any dribbler, he has to dribbles in all situations, including running at the heart of teams with multiple opposition to get by. If anyone attempts the more safer dribbles, it's Martial as he tends to stick to one side, the left side. Alexis will run at the centre of the opposition or wherever.



As though it's bad to only attempt dribbles when in space? Does that suggest that Sanchez is the better dribbler? Surely not.
I don't really have an opinion either way mind, just genuinely curious.
 
I agree. I think he is way overhyped. Granted he is only 20, but most of the hype comes from people and media who think of him as a brilliant goalscoring midfielder like Lampard and Gerrard. In truth, he played most games as a roaming second forward with a decent scoring record. Put him in midfield and he struggles against top quality opposition. All being said, i like him as a talent but players like him are difficult to fit in cos they are neither a 10 nor a 9, unless he becomes a Muller.

Thing is though, he always used to play as an 8. If I'm honest I think Pochettino is not doing him any favours, should be playing him in midfield instead of turning him into yet another average England no.10.
 
He reminds me so much of Brazilian Ronaldo. Obviously, this is high praise indeed, but his ability to keep the ball as close to his opponent as possible then move it away when they put a foot in is just brilliant.
 
He reminds me so much of Brazilian Ronaldo. Obviously, this is high praise indeed, but his ability to keep the ball as close to his opponent as possible then move it away when they put a foot in is just brilliant.
I agree. He's more similar to Ronaldo than he is to Henry. Would have to raise him game several levels to reach Ronaldo. Hopefully, he can do it.
 
He's also working on his shooting. Had several attempts in the last two games, although most of them were blocked.
I like that he's getting greedy and looking to have shots on goal at the end of his runs. IMO, that would make him a far more dangerous player.
 
He's also working on his shooting. Had several attempts in the last two games, although most of them were blocked.
I like that he's getting greedy and looking to have shots on goal at the end of his runs. IMO, that would make him a far more dangerous player.

He said in an interview last year that he was trying to be more selfish and think more like a striker. Then he did it too much and his game went to shit because he stopped going outside the defender and kept cutting inside trying to curl one into the far corner but instead almost always had his shots blocked. This was a big factor in his drop in form because the best thing he used to do last season was drive at the full-back, skin him and then produce a goal or assist from that advanced position out wide. He might have found a balance now though, hopefully.
 
As though it's bad to only attempt dribbles when in space? Does that suggest that Sanchez is the better dribbler? Surely not.
I don't really have an opinion either way mind, just genuinely curious.
It was in response to this from the previous poster,

"Martial always dribbles very fast and directly at defenders, with the ball stuck to his feet regardless of how little space he has to work with. Sanchez for example will only really dribble when afforded a lot of space and usually away from defenders so of course he is gonna have a higher completion rate."

And I just thought otherwise. To me, Sanchez is the more versatile dribbler. He can be your counter attack man who caries you up the pitch, he can get you out of the tight spot, he can cope with congestion to the extent that pushing him inside isn't a problem for him. That's all
 
From the name you mentioned only Ben is arguable while the rest aren't better dribbler than Martial. Pogba for example is aestically better than Martial in his dribbles but he's no way a better dribbler than Martial. Payer isn't even close, Rubery is a retired player(the fact that you had to dig him show how hard you're finding to come up with those players better than Martial at dribbling).

That Dembele kid is also a good shout but isnot really a better dribbler than Martial.

Martial has that dribbling talent where very few like Hazard, Messi, Robben can carry the ball at full speed and glide past through opponents. Miki also has this quality but Martial is able to dribble at a faster pace than him which make him even better.

It's very hard to carry the ball at full throttle, skim through players with the ball close to your feat without losing control. Martial has that quality which very few have.

And yes you overrate Kante. You think saying Kante is the most dominant Mf in the PL isn't overrating him? Or saying that he'd walk into any team in the world bar maybe one isn't? (Though I don't know if this one was said by you or someone else)
I am sorry but Payet is definitely the better dribbler. far more versatile. Can take up positions in the middle of the park and still skip past players. Martial often kicks and chases, using his raw acceleration like Henry
 
I agree. He's more similar to Ronaldo than he is to Henry. Would have to raise him game several levels to reach Ronaldo. Hopefully, he can do it.
:wenger: Basically the opposite. watch videos of them. Ronaldo was full of dragbacks, flick flaks, step overs etc. Martial sizes his man up, and then kicks it past him and chases. Or he sizes his man up knocks it inside (or feigns), then knocks it past his man and chases. Far Far Far closer to Henry. Y'all must've forgot who Ronaldo was
 
:wenger: Basically the opposite. watch videos of them. Ronaldo was full of dragbacks, flick flaks, step overs etc. Martial sizes his man up, and then kicks it past him and chases. Or he sizes his man up knocks it inside (or feigns), then knocks it past his man and chases. Far Far Far closer to Henry. Y'all must've forgot who Ronaldo was
You make martial sound like a kick and run footballer. martial's dribbling is about keeping the ball close to his feet.
 
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